Gone
by Neko Briefs
Summary: After Goten and Paresu break up, Goten takes a look at what he meant to her. After a tearfest, a light comes through the darkness...


**Gone**   
Written by Neko-B   
the_ugly_barnacle@hotmail.com

He walked down the cold, damp streets of his hometown, his hands stuffed into his pockets and his head hung low. He beared the face of a man who had just lost something precious in his life, but could not bring it back. While his face was cold, his heart was shattered. As he walked further and further, his black shoes taking him to a destination he didn't even know, one word ran through his mind: 

"Paresu..." he whispered. He walked over a bridge and stopped at the peak of it, resting his hands on the rail and looking at the water below. Goten caught his reflection in the stream and saw that his eyes were red from crying. Why did she leave? 

_There's a thousand words that I could say to make you_   
_come home, yeah_   
_Seems so long ago you walked away and left me alone_   
_And I remember what you said to me, you were acting_   
_so strange_   
_And maybe I was too blind to see that you needed a_   
_change..._

"Why is this hurting me so much?" Goten asked himself. Sure, Paresu was just a girlfriend, and he's had many of those, but why did this breakup tear his heart into two? 

Then it hit him like a ton of bricks. He loved her. From the bottom of his heart. Every other girlfriend he had was just for fun. Never did he think that he would find the one he wanted to spend the rest of his life with -- only to lose her. To another man. One who would probably do her well. 

_Was it something I said to make you turn away_   
_To make you walk out and leave me cold_   
_If I could just find a way to make it so that you were_   
_right here, right now..._ __

"I'll never find another," Goten told himself. Hot tears sprung to his eyes, and he jammed his palms into his hands to make them stop, but he couldn't. He wasn't that powerful. Nothing can stop the tears you cry when you've lost the one you love. 

_I've been sitting here_   
_Can't get you off my mind_   
_I'm tryin' my best to be a man and be strong_   
_I drove myself insane wishing I could touch your face_   
_But the truth remains, you're_   
_Gone..._ __

Then Goten broke. He cried into his hands like a lost little boy. He loved her so much, but she was gone now. Paresu was nothing but a memory now. She didn't want him back. She was in love with somebody else. Thinking of this made him sob hysterically as he leaned on the bridge, and his tears fell into the stream below. He had lost the only good thing he had going in his life, and nothing could ever fill that gap. Not even... 

"Goten?" Bura's voice called. He quickly wiped his eyes and turned to face the blue-tressed girl who was approaching him. "Goten! You've been crying!" she exclaimed as she came closer. "What happened?" 

"Nothing," he replied. "It's..." He sighed. "I can't hid anything from you, Bura. Paresu broke up with me." 

Bura's eyes went wide and her mouth formed the shape of an O. "Oh, good Lord... Goten, I'm so sorry." She looked at him with blue eyes glistening with sympathy. "That's horrible. I know how much you liked her." 

"I didn't like her, Bura," Goten said. He turned to look down at the stream again. As he spoke, his voice quivered: "I loved her." He broke into tears all over again. "I loved her with all of my heart, and she left me." 

"Shh..." Bura hugged Goten impulsively. Goten wrapped his arms around the girl and hugged her tightly, crying on her shoulder. "It's okay, Goten, cry all you need to," Bura soothed. "Love hurts, Goten. It can rip you to pieces. But you'll get through it, I know. You're the strongest person I know. I've seen you battle tougher situations, and you always win." 

Goten sniffed, wiping his eyes with the back of his hand. "Thank you, Bura," he whispered. He held her at arms length and smiled down at her, a shaky smile. "I will get through this, won't I?" 

Bura nodded. "Yup." She flashed him a smile. "Come on; you shouldn't be alone right now." She grabbed his hand and walked down the bridge, over the other end. Goten smiled and followed. Sure, he didn't have a girlfriend, but he had a friend. 

And sometimes, friends are all you need in the world. 

(owari) 

"Gone" (c) 2001 Tennman Tunes, WaJeRo Sound. Performed by *NSYNC. 


End file.
